WE SURVIVED THE END OF THE WORLD--AGAIN!! Now What?

On the last known day on earth, if you weren't praying to your God or Gods, you were either partying it up YOLO-Style, making a list of all your enemies to tell off, making a list of people to apologize to, or you stayed home and hoped for the best with the Zombie Survival Guide in one hand and your significant other by your side. OR you were like my friend Kiara and posted again and again how stupid people are for believing the Mayans or false Nasa Reports and stuff. I watched TV, and just for fun, I watched "Shaun of the Dead" on Netflix only to realize that at 12:42AM NOTHING HAPPENED AGAIN!

 Not only am I bad at Math, but apparently so are The Mayans, who were obviously wrong and who would've gotten a calendar from me for Christmas had they still been around. The only good thing that came out of today were the funny memes on Facebook and tumblr.

The end was near for the twinkies, Gossip Girl (FINALLY- DAN WAS GOSSIP GIRL!!) but as for the human race, we'll be Okay.

Many People were probably prepared for the worst, since the Mayan Calender told us to, because their calendar ends on December 21st, which is a Friday, a good enough excuse for any idiot to proclaim "Ultimate YOLO" before doing something incredibly stupid, but since all that is behind us, we (those of you who aren't hungover, in jail or on a death bed) can look to the future! Christmas is coming, as is 2013, and with the new year comes new movies and stuff. Here's a list of stuff I'm looking forward to watching in 2013 as of right now. (And I know my new Editor-in-chief Gustavo is going to have me write about in the upcoming semester, because it's all Features. Consider this a preview for the Blog!)

1) The awesome book-turned-to-movie "Warm
Bodies"
If you look at the Youtube trailer, My copy editor Raf (who showed me the trailer) is responsible for atleast half the number of views its gotten. It's a zombie romance, and although it sounds disgusting if you try to visualize a zombie couple going "Lady and the tramp" on a lifeless arm, it's actually very well written and funny. I'm looking forward to it because as far as I know, no one has ever attempted a zombie genre like this. It's a bit hard to explain what it's about so here's the official trailer. Never thought I'd say this, but what a cute zombie! Look at those gorgeous, lifeless eyes!

2)  How I met your Mother season 9
We're getting closer to knowing who Ted's wife is in this romance story told in reverse. Season 8 ended with Barney finally proposing to Robin at the top of the "world wide news" building where Robin works as an anchor (yay journalism!) Now we know Ted and Robin can officially never be. The opening credit always has his two kids, a son and daughter (played by David Henrie and Lyndsay Forsenca--recorded in 2003!) listening on the couch as their dad rambles on about his dating life leading up to how he met their mother. Every season we get clues as to what she's into and who she might be, but writers on this show like to throw us viewers off, which brings me to my next show.

3) Pretty Little Liars 
People have been dying on this show since the first episode and all (well, most) clues point to the liars. The amount that these girls carry on their shoulders as high school seniors and dealing with the vicious text attacks by 'A'  is staggering. The last episode shown for the season was the Halloween episode, where Aria (beautifully played by Lucy Hale) was nearly killed on the Halloween Train where she was drugged and kidnapped by the 'A' team and crammed into a box with a dead body. This show is a must see, because the whole world is watching and trying to figure out who's 'A' and who else besides Toby (a boyfriend of one of the girls) and Mona (an ex-friend) are working for 'A'. I already knew you can't trust many in high school, but the amount of secrets everyone has is incredible. Nothing is what it seems and they can't even go to the police for help because, well, it's all very complicated thanks to 'A'.

4) Girl Meets World
I admit I flipped out when I heard that they are rebooting the '90s classic "Boy Meets World" with Cory and Topanga (played by Ben Savage and Danielle Fishell) raising their Teenage daughter in this new society that is pretty different from their when they were growing up. I have high hopes for this reboot, as do many other fans, which puts a lot of pressure on the writers to make this a great family show, while still dealing with teen issues. We all know reboots that suck end up losing a massive chunk of fans afterwards, (Rugrats: 'All grown up'--WHY DID YOU HAVE TO GROW UP?!) The only down side is that bad boy Shawn Hunter (played by the oh-so sexy Ryder Strong) won't be reprising his role as Cory's best friend. He tweeted that he might be in as a guest star but not as a cast regular. Damn.


5) A Haunted House
I saw Marlon Wayans apart of the credits and I knew I had to watch this. There's something about making fun of scary movies that he's so good at. Check out his new trailer, which some would think is stupid and immature. I'm not one of them.

6) Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters
Check out this bad ass spin on a kid's folklore, it impressed me enough to want to watch the movie with my brother. Can you say 'Family Bonding'

7) Kick Ass 2

The funny superhero teen comedy comes back this summer as one of the summer blockbusters of 2013. not much can be said about the film yet, other than the original stars are coming back to reprise their roles. The official trailer isn't out online yet, but trust me, the original Kicks Ass.

8) Carrie

I'm especially excited to see the remake of Stephen King's 'Carrie'. It's one of my favorite Novels and it's just flat out creepy. Chloe Mortez, who's also in 'Kick Ass 2' as Foul Mouthed Hit Girl, Plays the bullied teen who takes revenge on all her cruel classmates who dumped pigs blood on her at Prom. I hate scary movies, but this is one I'd love to see, just to see how the director will be adapting it to the newer generation, and how violent and gorey it will be compared to the original with Sissy Spacek in the '70s, where even the most budgeted movies looked pretty cheap in theaters. It's scheduled to hit theaters in spring but thanks to the new technology, you can find out #WhatHappenedToCarrie on Twitter for the latest updates.

My List may be short but it's growing the more I find out how long I'm going to be sitting on my ass next year watching and writing, kind of like what I did this year. I love my Major, and I'm glad the world didn't end simply because I haven't been published yet outside of The Observer. I know I will one day, and that's something else to look forward to.

You can never know too much about Sex!

It's not how I would've spent my Tuesday afternoon on South Campus, but since I haven't taken Sex ed since high school, I figured "why not? You can never have too much information and I get a boxed lunch afterwards." Plus my friend on the paper Rogianne, and my Advisor Jen said that the one last year was really informative and funny, and they didn't disappoint this year either.

The two women running the seminar are authors and sexologists (how do you major in sex? can you minor in it as well?) named Dr. Joni Frater and Esther Lastique, who held nothing back when it came to having safe sex and the different steps both guys and girls can take to protect themselves, from condoms to getting tested after every sexual encounter, because as Esther believes, you can never be tested too many times. Their goal from the start was to erotically enlighten everyone. Knowledge is sexy!

Isn't this cute? It's squishy!

It was entertaining to watch and Drs. Frater and Lastique knew how to engage the audience by having kind of like an icebreaker at the beginning to see what we know and what we don't, who we got our facts from if we didn't or couldn't ask an adult we trusted growing up. Those who participated were thrown a hand grenade, but it's like those hand held stress release things. My number one source of information was my mom, and one of the things that's always stood out to me most was one of the first things she told me, which was not to use two condoms at once, which earned me a grenade for participation. Thanks, Mom!

This seminar actually taught me a few new things when it came to protection and prevention, like how Oil based lubricants can make a normal latex condom pop in ten seconds (what?!) because the oil messes with the latex, causing it to expand and break--something that no one wants to happen to them. So we as students were advised to use water-based lubricants. Frankly, lubes gross me out, but no subject was left un-discussed with these ladies.

Esther holding a condom for the room to see.

Obviously college kids party hard, so just like there's MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Drivers) there's the girl-rule of "Friends don't let friends sleep with creepy guys." The "official" rule was different, but I've had this rule with my best friend and club-buddy Carolyn when we would go on a girls-night out. Any substance that's considered fun normally ends up impairing your reflexes and decision making, so when you're drunk (or high!) and you want to do stuff, a condom would (most likely) be the last thing on their (and your) mind in the heat of it all. One thing they emphasized a lot about was that the pull-out method doesn't work at all, and can get the girl pregnant.

When they started to talk about condoms and genital care, their slideshow actually showed the actual guys'junk (some dude off the internet) and Joni demonstrated how to properly put on and dispose condoms. Apparently flushing them down the toilet is a huge no-no because it messes with the plumbing. who knew.

They also gave us a tip to make condoms feel better for guys who complain how it feels weird or bad, which was to use a water-based dime sized amount of lube on the inside of the condom for the guys. Again, who knew.

When it came to the female condom, I learned how awkward it looks without it even being in use, and honestly, those things made me think of a weird disfigured toothless mouth that some guy will look at and not want his junk anywhere near. It's clearly not for everyone. They also discussed dental dams, which is basically a latex sheet for oral sex, the only down side is that it's latex,not really see through, so you're navigating blindly. They suggested to use Saran Wrap, the actual sandwich wrapping brand because it's the only brand that doesn't have tiny microscopic holes in the plastic. Once again, Who knew.

Among the other things covered were non-latex condoms for those who are allergic, the scary statistics about STDs and HPV and how we as students should be more sexually responsible, because after all, not everyone deserves to get what we have.

BC offers free STD testing for students and they don't need to draw blood with needles. They can swab the inside of your mouth, for those of you who are too chicken to take the needle but are brave enough to sleep with someone one night and do your walk-of-shame down to the clinic in the morning.

Personally, if anything at all looks suspicious, it's not going to happen, or supposed to happen. There's a planned parenthood on University Drive, right by south campus, and another one by central and north if you want to get tested but missed the dates to do it. Those who are doing the walk-of-shame, your results can be anonymous if worse come to worse.

Apparently, Joni and Esther go around the country doing this, and even said they go to "America's Heartland" which is pretty much the country area between the fast paced east coast and the (probably just as fast paced) west coast and hear some crazy stories about how little those bible thumping country idiots (my words, not theirs!) know about sex and stuff.

The amount of people who don't  know the basics and are fully grown adults make me wonder why the hell haven't they tried to educate themselves. It's not hard, it's all over the internet and in several books. Infact, for more information on these awesome ladies and more safe sex tips, click here to educate yourself. Remember, knowledge is sexy!

So here are a couple of things I can say I learned from this sassy and funny boot camp

1) Oil and Latex don't mix.
2) They don't need your potentially infected blood to know if you have an STD, the warts say it all
3) Condoms can really mess up the plumbing--try explaining that to your mom!
4) Out of the 6 million new cases of genital HPV per year, 74% of them are 15-20 year-olds
5) Female condoms kill boners, so I guess it's doing its job..
6) flavored condoms are mostly scented
7) You can recycle Saran Wrap to your pleasure
8) Lambskin condoms have microscopic holes that can allow fluid through, so that sucks.
9) The average penis is 5.5 inches, so most men don't need magnums
10) One method of birth control that's 100% effective is abstinence